Cathing Up News

The weather has turned cooler and has been sunny. Finally we have fall, and now it is moving right on into winter. Such is life in OK. As usual, I keep waiting on things to slow down, but they never do. At least with the time change, we have to slow down some, since it gets dark early. I love that.

Yesterday, it was so nice outside that Toby and I did some outdoor chores. Since we had our first fire on Friday night, we decided we had better cut some firewood.  Toby worked the chainsaw while I gathered and stacked the wood.  I had de ja vu.  Forty years ago when I was pregnant with Bo, we lived in San Marcos going to college and living in the married housing down by the river. Of course we had little money and worked several jobs to make a living while going to school. On weekends we would go out toward Lockhart where friends were building a house.  Toby helped build the house sometimes (for pay), but other times we would cut wood on their property.  We would take the wood back to San Marcos and drive around in the wealthier neighborhoods and sell the wood for something ridiculous like $25 a cord.  Forty years later and we are still cutting our own wood. I'm not pregnant, but I am fat and still clumsy. Where are the young, hungry college kids when you need them? Actually, it was not bad - kind of fun - at least until you stop and get stiff and sore.

Soon after we finished the wood cutting and stacking, the grandkids showed up. They played on the four-wheeler mostly. Toby recently uncovered the pool table in the barn. Several years ago, he got an old pool table from friends, and it has been covered in the barn since then. Toby is hoping to work on our pottery room soon and has been clearing things in the barn to get ready for the room. The pool table will go in the pottery room that will double as a man-cave. The kids were fascinated by the table, and so we had to have lessons in pool. Part of life's training.

Art is going well. There is the CTAC Holiday Art Show coming up. That means I will be working on setting up the show as well as putting art in the show. I have finished two watercolors that are okay, but not prize-winning. Maybe sell-able. I need to get things finished and framed. Yikes! I need to kick it into gear.

Art at the Edge (high school alternative class) is really fun.  I love those kids. They are a mess, but they are willing to do art and they seem to enjoy it. They talk while they paint, which is fun, but sometimes they get way off. I have to tell them to change the subject - TMI. They think that is quite funny.

Big News
Jesse's bestfriend, Lindz and her husband Shay, adopted a baby boy. They are naming him Fredrick Theodore. Yep, Freddy Teddy! Shay wants to call him Teddy (says that it is a great baseball player name). Lindz wants to call him Theo. I lean towards Theo, but time will tell. He is now two months old and filling out nicely. I go and hold him at least once a week. We had a party for him - a "come and meet the new kid" party.  He was perfect - slept while everyone took a turn holding him. He woke up to smile and coo to Jesse - his favorite aunt. His story is so amazing:

In late September Shay and Lindz got a call from a lady they knew saying that a young teenager was pregnant. She had hid her pregnancy from her family for a long while - the baby was due in Oct. She wanted Shay and Lindz to adopt her baby. They made a plan to meet the mother and discuss things. A few hours later the lady called back to say that the young mother had gone into labor early and was now at the hospital. If Shay and Lindz wanted the baby, they needed to go to the hospital too. They went. The hospital set them up in a room just like expecting parents. We all joined them there like expectant grandparents. At 4:00 PM the baby was born. At 5:00 the baby was placed in Lindz' arms, and the deal was done. All on the same day! It was a miracle. I guess all births seem like a miracle, but getting a baby - such a perfect little man - was truly God given.  We are all in love with Teddy/Theo.